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“Are you sure this isn’t some sort of……..idk…scam?”“….isn’t it a bit too late now? Judging by the fact that I am standing right in front of the building”“hey I did warn you!”“pat-what-if-u-die, is hardly a warning, given that u say it to me for everything I ever do”“ok smartass??? maybe because u have no self-regard, like why the fuck would u take a random cleaning job from an ad you saw in the Newspaper in a random cafe no less”“…..would u rather I sleep on the streets?”“ it seems safer than Rich people who paid for your flight just so you could work for them in another country???”“…fair enough. Don’t worry bri, I can handle myself”“I hope so….have me on speed dial ok? And if the place feels cult-y ….just run.”“yesyes all done and dusted. Ill call you later if I survive”“what the fu-“The phone call cuts off after patroclus hits the red button, it was always fun to torment his best friend. Though her concern was …..Liable, he did just pick up the job from a month old newspaper
(he didn’t tell that part to briseis, she’d probably kill him herself if he had).
He wasn’t expecting them to actually pick up, his rent was due and freelancing with pottery making was barely helping him make the cut so he had to take his chances.And here he was now in Thessaly, Greece. where every breath he took made it seem as if his lungs were getting cleared of the metropolitan filth.The driver they sent to said to simply knock the manor doors after he had dropped him inside the 'grounds'
(he was kind of convinced that everything he saw up to some extent was owned by whoever lives there)
As instructed, patroclus knocks the door and stands, looking around and all he sees is open ground leading to the back of the manor and surrounded by forests all over….clearly not clearing his anxiety about being lowkey kidnapped and having his organs taken out of his body and sold.The door opens not so long after patroclus considers knocking again, coming face to face with a fairly old lady, dressed in all black. Patroclus waves at her and she only gives him a pointed look making him internally wince as he pulls his hand down,”uhm hi! nice to meet to you! I'm patroclus……I talked on the phone about the cleaning job?”the women thinks for a bit, while patroclus ignored how she gave him a look over as if ….assessing him, before nodding, opening the door to give way to him and his bag and he cant help but lightly gasp in awe as he looks around, the manor was so…dark yet lit in a way he thought he was in a horror movie setting, he wondered how they maintained the medieval era charm to it even in this age.The lady doesn’t speak anything for a while letting him look around through his gaze, afterwards gesturing him to follow as she takes him towards a dark hallway dimly lit by candle lights. The hallway ends soon enough when the lady stops at a door, opening it with twist at the knob and walking in as pat follows.Inside the room pat came face to face with a kitchen of sorts, chefs dressed in white while others followed a black and white mixture of dress code.The lady clears her throat which is somehow enough for everyone there to quiet down and listen to them as she starts to speak, “Everyone, this is patroclus, he shall be helping assigned to the cleaning duties starting from tomorrow. I shall leave him in your hand's."Then she turns specifically towards pat, “I will assign you your duties tomorrow morning sharp at 11, be ready by 10 o clock with your uniform as precaution”, leaving before the other can even get a word. The rest of the room reverts back to doing their work as if he was never there, leaving him to stand and watch before finally building up the courage to go and ask a few maids getting cleaning supplies from a closet.He taps on one of the maids’ shoulder watching as she turns, a slight annoyance between her eyebrows from being disturbed, “hello…uhh…sorry for disturbing, I'm actually new here, could you guide me to the rooms where we get to be?”the maid looks a bit taken aback when he mentions he’s new but then nods, pointing towards a door, ”behind that are the sleeping chambers, take a room which has its key left in the keyhole, those are used to signify the empty rooms.”The maid then hesitates a bit and looks around before suddenly getting closer to him a bit, “don’t be late on your first day, no matter what” and simply leaves him with his mouth slightly ajar.Somehow patroclus makes it to the other side of the door and even picks out a room, mouth still ajar as he puts his stuff down on a chair near him and finally takes a moment to take in his surroundings.The room is quite cozy, it isn’t big enough to fit two couches but somehow big enough to have a mini cupboard, a desk and chair and a single bed (ignoring the door that leads to an even smaller bathroom).Patroclus makes a silent prayer to whatever god might be out there that the cupboard hanging Just about the bed doesn’t have any loose screws as he pulls out his phone to dial briseis once again.A loud wheeze like laughter erupts in pats ear making him wince as he takes a bite of the sandwich he had packed from the airport restaurant,
for something so expensive It hardly tasted the part, but pat guesses it’s probably part of how airports work.
briseis takes a deep breath on the phone as she speaks again, “so basically the place Is super creepy and even ur fellow colleague has warned against being late on day one at work? Checks out all the boxes for either a cult or super haunted place. It’s even in the middle of nowhere pat, who the fuck decides to have a whole manor at the remotest part of an even remoter village. I'm just glad ur pet hamster is no longer here to witness u being this stupid…although u were the one who accidentally fed him chocolate.”Pat groans as he neatly wraps the sandwich wrapper and puts in the bin, “first of all, don’t bring kirby into this, the chocolate fell the same time he happened to be near me, I didn’t think he’d take a bite. And for the most part, I just think this is a conservative family okay, they’ve maintained the whole aesthetic pretty well anyways.”Briseis then goes off into another tangent how that only proves her point that pat is ‘done for’ before pausing suddenly, “wait, didn’t you say you guys have a uniform? what is it?”pat pauses drying his hands as he picks up his phone from the side, “frankly, I have no idea, probably something monochromatic like the others”.he heads towards the cupboard and opens it for the very first time, finding a neatly packed uniform, shifting his phone to his ear and balancing it as he opens the plastic covering,“its not so bad….it has a white collar and is mostly black, a lil see through sleeves? I dunno….I guess a sort of button up upper”As he's speaking something slips and falls out from the packet, making him lower down with a sigh as he picks up the black piece of clothing and finds a shoebox in front of him.Telling briseis to hold on he puts the black cloth upwards as he pulls out the box, sitting on the bed as he opens it and putting the phone on his ear again like before, “uhm…I think they gave me the wrong box….this one has like…a ballet flat”briseis stays silent for a while before speaking, “wait…whats the whole uniform again”pat sighs keeping the box away before finally separating the outfit, gasping as he sees what the whole thing is,”this……they have to be kidding….this is a black button up with white collar and cuffs, pretty good. But theres a skirt here, knee length I guess with an apron with a number 7…and… that see through thing…it’s …..stockings………….”Theres a bit of silence on the other line and pat braces himself. Briseis takes a deep breath and another loud laugh graces his ear,”SHOW ME THE PHOTO SEND IT. NOW. I HAVE TO SEE YOU IN IT IMMEDIATELY”pat clicks his tongue as he puts all the stuff back in the plastic bag and chucks it back into the half open cupboard, “no can do bri, even for my best friend that’s a bit too much privilege.”As briseis goes off on a tangent about how she deserves it amongst other stuff, pat can’t help but lay on the bed face first, now slightly wishing that the cupboard does have a few loose screws for the sake of his own sanity. ~~~ Its pitch black, either that or he’s blindfolded, patroclus can’t really tell.Before he can open his mouth, the back of a hand comes and caresses his cheek lightly making him gasp.Warm, is all pat can think about the touch before it moves away. A muffled voice soon breaches his ear, as if he was underwater, “he’s perfect.”pat can feel himself flush at that, the sound of footsteps comes behind him, the hand creeping from his shoulder to his neck to his cheek, the touch no longer gentle as it pinches on his face tilting his head back to rest on what pat can think is a chest,“perfectly alluring. He even seems to enjoy this.” The voice no longer muffled, clear like daybreak and surrounding him and pat probably has to rethink later if he had suddenly developed a thing for accents or just specifically this….persons’ voice, Its probably what pouring honey over his ears would feel like.The person suddenly turns him around, an arm weaving tightly around his waist and pat can feel their build, from the muscles in their arms to how tightly they hold him, as if he’d slip away.pat can’t help but let out an audible, “oh god” when he feels the others’ hand start dipping below his waist.Only to have the person freeze as they click their tongue, the voice speaking once more, “sweet dove, I’m so much worse than him” the breathe feeling so close to his own lips when- ~~~ The blaring alarm clock and persistent knockson the door wakes pat up with a jolt.The other barely has time to register the Almost lewd dream as he snoozes his phone, getting up with weirdly wobbly feet as he opens the door to be face to face with non-other than the old lady from yesterday,before he can say hi she only glares at him, cutting him off, “Have you realised what the time is? You immensely late and your duties await. Hurry up and get dressed, the others are waiting because of you.”pat only nods with a slight wince as he closes the door, heading straight to the bathroom, ignoring any lingering thoughts about the dream, maybe he was just going crazy from everything around him, big deal.The scowl on his face however only gets bigger as he wears the ‘uniform’ given to him, he’s just glad the skirt has some pockets for his phone and earphones, also putting his key into a diff pocket as he exits the room, heading from the kitchen towards the same hallway which he first saw when he entered the manor.In a line stand all the maids, being instructed by non-other than the same lady that game to get him, he also notices the maid from yesterday shaking her head towards him before she leaves to attend to her own duties.pat doesn’t get much of a word with his other fellow employees as they too scatter around quickly sending looks of pity towards patroclus, which the other chalks up due to his uniform.Towards the end only him and the senior lady is left and she beckons him to follow her as she walks across beneath the staircase that leads to the upper half of the mansion, a place pat never noticed before as the lady opens a drawer from nearby and pulls out a key, unlocking the door and gesturing towards pat,“the cleaning supplies are going to be towards your near left when you enter, bring them outside when you’re done.” And pat only nods heading inside as the lady closes the door behind him.---The room is enveloped in darkness except for the bonfire in the middle, he tries to switch on the button but it hardly does anything, making pat sigh as he picks up the feather duster and looks around again.The room seems to be quiet minus the crackling of the fire, the bookcases looking at him as if they had been waiting for his arrival, pat also doesn’t miss the staircase that leads upwards to, well, more books but ignores it in favour of the dust on the chair in front of the bonfire.Pat sighs to himself as he pulls out his phone and earphones, connecting the wire into the socket and putting his playlist on shuffle as he pockets the phone again, getting ready to finally start cleaning.He goes towards the bookshelves first, the feather duster working wonders even in the corners of the shelves that may have hid any dust in them.His curious nature soon betrays him as his fingers come to caress the spines of the books, awed at how old they look yet they maintain their rigidity.He pulls one out and skims through the pages mindlessly when his finger accidentally pricks itself onto the sharp end of his page, making him wince as the book falls from his hand, pausing his music he puts the finger in his mouth for a moment and takes it out, ignoring the slight pain in it as he bends to pick up the book that had fallen.Just as he picks up the book he hears a slight shuffle from above him.Patroclus feels his heart skip a beat as he gets up, putting back the book as he looks towards the bookcase above, hardly any light falling there leaving his brain to fill in the blanks in a way he doesn’t need.So he does what anyone would, he turns around, turns up his music, picks up his feather duster and continues dusting the book case in front of him.Surely whatever dust is upstairs could be cleaned by someone else! On some other day!Annoyed by the lack of light he soon finds himself lighting up a candleholder kept on a table near to the chair with matches he found nearby
(he didn’t even try to question it anymore, the owner probably just loved their aesthetics a little too much even in the department of resources).
Time blends into the background as patroclus works his way into dusting the entire room, excluding the upper half, also ignoring how the light blows out more than the times it can be chalked up to coincidence. He ends up blaming it on the wind, surely there must be Some sort of ventilation in this totally-dark-even-in-mornings-probably-no-windows room.Surprisingly, just as patroclus was about to open the door leave the door opens on itself, he thinks of it as a fellow employee or the old lady fetching him but when he steps outside the hallway is eerily empty.The room behind him seemingly taunting him, as if knowing their journey isn’t done yet and patroclus thinks he’s actually going crazy this time, picking fights with…rooms of all things.---When he arrives in the kitchen after refreshing himself and changing into something more comfortable the people in the room seem almost shocked, especially the old lady but they know better to say anything as pat opts to take his dinner to his chambers, not wanting to deal with their stares any longer.He calls up bri soon after and the other seems as weirded out as him when he describes everything that had happened
(he knowingly leaves out the part where the door opened itself, lest briseis bug him about being ‘right’ again………she ends up saying it anyways),
“…you know pat, not to be that person but I Did tell you that going there would be a bad idea....if I was you id pack my bags right now and leave.”Pat sighs as he rubs his temples, “if only I was the only daughter of a rich wine maker with like 3 sons.”“Ha ha so funny”“you know it’s not that easy bri, if It was I would be either rich or my dad would actually care about me”“hey who knows, maybe if you ‘work’ hard enough you’ll catch the attention of the owner of that place”“ew, I bet its someone super old and …ew just ew”“think about the money!! He dies early and et voila! You get everything.”“……goodnight briseis”“hey wait don’t you dare hang u-“The phone line beeps as pat lays down on the bed, head inside his pillow and considers screaming his lungs out, but for some reason votes against it before laying on his spine, the last thought on his mind before he drifts off to sleep being of the dream he had yesterday. ~~~ Its once again pitch black, though this time patroclus doesn’t get the time to fathom anything as a familiarly warm hard comes to rest on his waist.patroclus flinches at the touch, just realising that his upper body is very much naked and tries to wiggle out of the hold the other has, only to have that hand tighten around him making him audibly gasp.The hand travelling upwards, leaving pat hot wherever it touches and stopping at the back of his neck, suddenly pulling him forward.Warm lips engulf his in a heated kiss and all patroclus can do is get consumed by them, the sensation too addicting for him to consider letting go, as if he was a tired traveller in the desert having his first drink after days.When the other separates first patroclus finds himself pursuing the kiss again, however this time it only stopping at pecks as the other entity doesn’t let him deepen it.The other only chuckles before putting a finger over his lips, dragging it downward and leaving pat only more bothered as they speak, “now now, patience. You’ll get all of this and more in due time, don’t be afraid tomorrow.” patroclus opens his mouth in confusion to speak up and ask at least one of the many questions in his mind but hes made to stop with a kiss, “soon my bride soon, anything you’ll want soon.”and patroclus feels his mind go hazy again as hes kissed by the entity with full force again, hands coming to hold onto the end locks of other person, hands travelling up their head, only to gasp in the kiss as he feels something rough at the top, something that is not normal for any human something- ~~~ patroclus once again wakes up with a jolt in his bed, this time to the blaring alarm clock accompanied by a racing heart.It had been like 2 days in that place and yet the dreams about that…person or thing remained the same and at the same intensity.Looking at the clock on his phone which shows 8 am, pat lays back down, mind drifting to the dream as his hands absentmindedly come to caress over his lips.He was never one to delve into romantic fantasies of all things, maybe he was just….lonely? That hardly was the case though, even with his freelancing barely helping him make ends meet he was…happy. Happy to do what he loved, what he had been hoping for since he was young,
regardless of what is father had thought, the same thing that got him kicked out and abandoned by him in the first place
but he had found his own place, his one true friend to stay with him beside it all. But love…….that had always been a mystery, it wasn’t something he ever actively pursued, all too busy in his own life’s matters.The alarm on his phone jolts him out of his thoughts again, showing the time now as 8:30 and pat sighs, rubbing his eyes, he was probably just pent up from being in such a stuck up place.Pushing aside the thoughts he was having as he gets up and heads to the bathroom to freshen up for another days work.---Patroclus feels almost proud of himself, he had woken up on time, had breakfast, and reported to duty about 10 minutes early.What he doesn’t get is why he was still being subjected to looks of pity from his peer, screw him for sleeping in on his first day he had jet lag!! Lots of it!!But pat keeps his thoughts to himself and soon the old lady appears (apparently the fellow maids call her Mrs Swift).patroclus watches as she assigns everyone their respective rooms, waiting to be called upon but Mrs Swift doesn’t until there are like only 3 of them left, from which the other two getting assigned to clean the wine cellar.Mrs Swift then turns to him, narrows her eyes and then gestures at him to follow her.Pat complies, internally groaning as he sees her go towards the same place from yesterday, taking out the key from her pocket this time as she turns to him and speaks,“you had done a fairly good job yesterday in cleaning the bookcases, however you must have missed the upper half given how the sire complained about it. He’s decided to forgive you based on your inexperience, today you shall not make that mistake. And to ensure that I shall confiscate your devices so you do not get distracted lest you want to be dismissed on your second day, are we clear?”Pats’ mouth ends up slightly agape in a mixture of disbelief and surprise, Almost wanting to make a comment about how this is the most she has spoken to him but he only nods, biting down his hesitation as he hands her his phone and earphones.As soon as he’s back inside the room he hears a slight lock being turned once again behind him and chooses to ignore that for the sake of his own sanity, they just wanted him to do his work well! That’s all.The room today looks almost more eerie than yesterday and pat feels as if he should’ve properly penned down his will, the notes app list would hardly benefit anyone.Sighing to himself he picks up the feather duster and matchbox, heading straight towards to upper half of the mini library through the winding staircase.When he reaches up half of his fears quell down, it was just a small, walking area surrounded by bookcases in the back, nothing else.patroclus soon gets to cleaning, opting to hum to himself as a way of trying to keep the remaining parts of his sanity intact.As pat’s about to reach to humming the second verse of butter he hears wood creaking beneath him, making him pause in his work.Against his hearts stammering he still turns to look down, the darkness and quietness of the room being the only thing being there and pat sighs in relief, it was probably just the creaking of the floorboard under his own steps.Soon, patroclus is done with the upper section bookcases and gives himself a pat on his own back, heading downstairs with the light up candle holder.From the corner of his eye patroclus spots someone sitting on the chair in front of the bonfire and pauses on the last steps of the staircase, cautiously he approaches the figure, his mind and heart both going into a frenzy due to his actions.Just as he’s about to reach near the person the lights in the candles near his hand all collectively blow out, making him startle as he drops the holder, barely missing his own foot.The person turns their head sideways and all patroclus sees is the eerie glow of his eyes, that being enough to make him turn and run back upwards, looking around for any signs or doors which can lead him outside but the godforsaken room doesn’t even have any windows.Against better judgement he peeks downstairs and can’t help but freeze in his spot as he watches the person slowly get up, their figure being accentuated by the fire as they walk slowly towards the staircase, not looking up once.However, as soon as they take once step on the staircase, their head straightens to look at pat and that’s enough for the other to break from his spell and start whisper screaming to himself as he pulls and pushes around the books in the shelves,“oh dear god please have a secret path, you look like you have a secret path, can you PLEASE open a secret path oh my god im too young to become demon-itized of all things.”As the entity reaches the final step, pats breathing gets erratic as he watches with his back on a bookcase, by some blessing, his right hand fumbles upon something which pushes itself downwards with his weight and pat only has the time to let out an undignified ‘ack’ in front of the entity as he stumbles backwards, landing on his rear as the pathway-slash-door closes itself.Patroclus gets up with a slight pained noise as he takes in his surrounding, the room he stands in is nothing short of luxurious.There are only two little problems, number one, he’s in someone’s bedroom, given by the fact of the utterly ridiculously huge (also very soft looking) bed in front of him and number two, its SOMEHOW night outside, given by the Also huge windows. Sighing to himself pat goes towards the bedside, glaring at the brass landline phone as if it had wronged him before picking up the…the thing which is put near the ear.Just as patroclus about to start to Try dialling a cold chill moves down his spine as his left hand is stopped mid-way to the numbers by a strong grip on his wrist.Patroclus heart, quite literally, drops to his stomach as a voice interjects him, almost as if teasing him “you don’t know how to use that dove.”Patroclus’ eyes widen in realization as he keeps the thing in his hand down, still now looking behind, “you…..you’re…it was you” the person seems pleased, pulling his wrist towards himself to place a kiss on it, “im glad to have made a lasting impression.”Heat rushes to patroclus’ face as his heart stammers again, this time in anticipation, “the dreams were…what the hell were they” the person pulls him along and pats suddenly glad for the dim lighting as he’s made to sit on his lap, his face just getting darker in shade at the action as the other speaks while undoing the apron he was wearing from behind,“quite a simple thing for me, perhaps in a way you could call it me entering your subconscious when it was most prominent, that is when you’re dreaming.”Pat only nods his mind barely on what the other is saying as the hands now run around his body, as if etching its shape in his mind, only breaking pats thoughts as he remembers something, “wait wait, I don’t even know your name or….. who you are”the person sighs, putting his chin on pats shoulders as his lips brush past pats’ ears, “true…..my name is Achilles. I am heir to this manor and I am indeed not human.”pat can’t help but shudder at the last words, letting out a shaky breathe as his hands turn into fists in determination, “okay……achilles, I’m sure you know my name…..but just in case, its patroclus. And I’d like to see you.”achilles’ hands come to trace upon pats stocking clad legs as he hums, “turn around then sweet dove, I’m yours as you are mine.”Despite the very nagging feeling in his gut that as soon as he turns his life will be altered in an unfixable way, pat still turns pointedly ignoring how he has to straddle the other and he can’t help but audibly gasp at what he sees.Honestly, a part of him wasn’t expecting much, but calling the other a demonic entity somehow would seem like an insult, even angels would be ashamed to call themselves as beautiful in front of him.Achilles had golden hair which looked as if woven from the rays of the sun itself, his green eyes reminding pat of the water of the beaches he had spot on his way to the manor, their depth indescribable, calling him handsome would hardly be cutting it close, even if books were written in praise of him, pat’s pretty sure they’d never be able to cut even close to the real deal.The other chuckles breaking patroclus out of his thoughts and suddenly pat feels as if he’s been cornered, “I’m flattered you think so dear patroclus, but the real enigma here is you. In all my years I’ve never come across someone so…..so ethereal that I can’t help but simply want you in ways which are overly human especially for me. If you would give me the honor, I’ll lay down the world and more at your feet.”Achilles’ words are enough for pat’s face to burst into a shade of red one would get when taking a bite of a beetroot and he opts for hiding it in the others’ shoulders, “are you seriously buttering me up before taking me to bed…..”before he can say more achilles flips them over, making pat yelp lightly as he lands with his back on the bed with the other towering over him, “I did promise you I shall give you what you want, introductions are just part of a greater whole. For you and me, our souls already know each other, only the body remains.”At that even patroclus can’t help but roll his eyes as he pulls the other towards him, their lips crashing with each other in a familiar kiss which both of them seem to have sought after since a long time, patroclus being the one to speak after the separate for a breath of air, “less talking and more of what you’ve promised me..okay?” and a glint in achilles’ eyes tells patroclus that he had taken his words as a challenge.~~~muffled moans and whines fill the bedroom, patroclus’ back arches once again, hands holding onto nothing as achilles had tied it back with a silk cloth in a knot he didn’t even know was possible.His thoughts and eyes glazed over as achilles had pulled him into a kiss, the others fingers working inside him, stretching him open.The other pulls away first leaving pat to catch his breath but just when the other starts getting used to the haze, his eyes widen at the even bigger intrusion of achilles entering him, letting out a slight fuck as achilles’ hands come to caress his sides.One of the hands soon come to rest upon those of patroclus’ and pat hardly has the time to tell the other to wait when he’s pulled back, his back coming to touch achilles’ chest as his head rests upon the other’s shoulders, achilles speaking right into his ear with a low tone, “well then, I hope I’ve kept my promise to you well my dove” and pat nods fervently hands coming to find some support on achilles’ arms, head lolled backwards as the two settle into a rhythm best for each other.Achilles slowly leads up kisses over patroclus neck, wetting and softening the area before nudging the other with his head in a silent question.patroclus takes a while to break out of his daze but then nods, “all yours to have” which makes the other smile into his skin.A sharp pain soon encompasses pat as achilles bites down on his neck purposely drawing his blood for consumption, while pats’ mind goes completely hazy, his mouth opening but only a whimper coming out. achilles’ pace increases as if something at been snapped inside him and even if patroclus opens his mouth to say something to the other it only cuts off in broken moans and whines due to the pace.Achilles separates from the others’ neck, turning pats head to join their lips in a heated kiss and pat can taste the iron on his own tongue which only makes him mumble something into the kiss but he’s sure achilles understands by the way his pace increases to make patroclus’ eyes roll back and arch beautifully into his hold as he comes undone together with the other.As they both come down from their highs, achilles unties the silk not, bringing up pats wrists to kiss and caress them, doing the rest with every other part of patroclus he may have been a little too rough on as he lays the other down to be comfortable on the bed.The two soon slot together in each other’s embrace like puzzle pieces coming together and patroclus can’t help but smile to himself, being more than just glad for his reckless decisions for once.